competitive. Also, I think potty training pains are like labor pains:
the details get fuzzy over time.
I’d say my biggest fight as a potty trainer is this “wait till they are
ready” business. The only reason I do fight is for the kids; in my job, I
have the dubious luxury of seeing big numbers, and I see where this
can lead. Frankly, it can lead to full-blown disasters. It can lead to
six-year-olds requesting diapers so they can poop. A friend of mine
told me about a parenting forum where a mom was talking about her
six-year-old wearing pull-ups to his first sleepover. He was mortified
when he got home. He told his mom, “This is your fault.” There you
have it. Despite all this, the other moms on the forum were saying
things like, “Don’t worry. He’ll do it when he’s ready.” OMG. So
maybe some kids will be going to college in diapers.
The whole point is this: some kids will never be “ready” on their
own. Also, trying to potty train an older child is hard. I also suspect
that the muscles used to control holding and releasing pee and poop
are developing around two years of age. If you wait beyond three years
of age to potty train, it’s as though these muscles have learned to not
be able to hold the pee. This is my own theory based upon what I
know about muscle development, combined with the large number of
incontinence issues I’ve seen in kids over three.
Dr. T. Berry Brazelton is a very famous pediatrician who has
become the foremost advocate of late potty training. He’s promoted
late potty training and the whole “wait till they’re ready theory” since
the 1960s and pretty aggressively at that. It also turns out that he was
a paid spokesperson for Pampers. Pretty clear conflict of interest,
don’t you think? Bear in mind that disposable diapers are a $450-
billion-a-year business, so there’s a pretty high stake in keeping you
barry
(Barry)
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